You try hard to go easy on yourself

[sovay]

Rabbit, rabbit! A Warren canvasser just rang our doorbell and startled the cats. Fortunately I could tell him that he did not need to evangelize to me and that he should stay warm on his rounds. The cats were warily prowling when I returned upstairs and were rewarded with treats for being so brave and honest.

1. The Brattle is running a series of religious horror. It's mostly Christian, but I haven't seen any of the movies except for the double feature of The Witch (2015) and The Blackcoat's Daughter (2015), which I should very much like to be healthy enough to attend. Some of the rest look fascinating.

2. I am delighted by Yoon Ha Lee's The Phoenix Recursive: A Combinatorial Experience (2020). Technically it's a classically black-and-white photocopied minizine, but it's also a beautiful little lo-fi semi-poetry chapbook and it could win a Rhysling any day, I'm just saying. Huzzah for Deuce of Gears Press.

3. Courtesy of handful_ofdust: some cute role-reversal leap year cards.

I think I am actually furious about the coronavirus. About the dismantling of protections and preparations. About the denial of reality-responsibility until it is too late to do anything but wring hands and blame scapegoats. It is one thing to die for reasons beyond anyone's control; it's another to die for the insecurity, stupidity, and malice of those in power who laid the groundwork for what will be worse. I don't want to lose my family. I don't, for that matter, want to join the mortality rate myself. In terms of what can and can't be tested for, the situation feels medieval to the point that I am disappointed in the absence of traditionally masked plague doctors. I would like to be able to look back on these thoughts as overreaction. I spend so much time working to stay alive.

Comments

[gwynnega]

That religious horror series looks wonderful. The Rapture is one of my favorites, though I've never seen it in a theater. I have seen The Exorcist in a theater, decades ago, and highly recommend it. I like The Invitation a lot, but would find it too terrifying to watch in a theater!

Yay Yoon Ha Lee chapbook!

The sheer irresponsibility and incompetence on display re: the coronavirus is enraging.

[sovay]

That religious horror series looks wonderful. The Rapture is one of my favorites, though I've never seen it in a theater.

Talk to me about it! It's the movie handful_ofdust compared Frailty to, when I mentioned being interested in that one.

I have seen The Exorcist in a theater, decades ago, and highly recommend it.

I'd like to try for it. I've never seen it and I feel if I'm going to, the big screen is the way to go.

I like The Invitation a lot, but would find it too terrifying to watch in a theater!

That's really good to know!

Yay Yoon Ha Lee chapbook!

It was such a nice thing to have arrive in the mail, especially when I feel crummy.

The sheer irresponsibility and incompetence on display re: the coronavirus is enraging.

I will also be disappointed in modern art if I don't see at least one mural of the Dance of Death featuring members of the current administration in place of the traditional emperor, pope, etc. High and low.

[gwynnega]

In The Rapture, Mimi Rogers plays a world-weary hedonist who becomes a born-again Christian. Things go badly wrong when she tries to interpret some prophetic dreams she's been having. She's right that the Rapture is coming, but by the time that happens, she's ready to tell God to go fuck himself for all eternity. The last minutes of this film are among my favorites in any movie.

[sovay]

She's right that the Rapture is coming, but by the time that happens, she's ready to tell God to go fuck himself for all eternity. The last minutes of this film are among my favorites in any movie.

Okay, that sounds amazing.

[lauradi7dw]

I watched it on video as part of a David Duchovny binge, early on in the run of the X-files. I found myself surprised at how conflicted I was at Rogers's character's reactions. Of course she was right, and yet... There was a lot of "if only" going on in my head.

[gwynnega]

It could be said that she blames God for her own startlingly bad decisions. Even so, there's something magnificent about her final decision, right or wrong.

[kore]

ISN'T THE RAPTURE SO GOOD? I HAVE THE SCREENPLAY.

Man, seeing the Exorcist on TV as a kid was bad enough. I was kind of too involved in the aesthetics of the Invitation to find it scary (which is on me, not the film)....altho it did also set off some bad New-Age-not-quite-culty vibes.

[gwynnega]

I love The Rapture so much.

The last half hour of The Invitation scared the crap out of me.

[kore]

Also, YES to the ending of The Rapture being so brilliant. Haunting even.

-- When she drinks the wine? Yeah, that was such a classic "You're not crazy, BUT that means you are now neck deep in shit" moment. (The music in that film was also great.)

[gwynnega]

Yes, when she drinks the wine! Aaaaaaaah!

[kore]

That was such a good example of -- not a jump scare exactly, but everyone is so focused on what they think is the Bad Thing and no, in reality it ALREADY happened, BEHIND THEM.

[kore]

I think what drove me over the edge re "I can't read about this any more right now" with the coronavirus was the detailed report on how some American Republican doctor stuck on the cruise ship called his American Republican doctor friend in the states, and somehow that resulted in the Americans being evacuated and taken off in buses even though their test results hadn't come back yet, and the 14 infected (at that time) people being put on the planes anyway, and everyone being greeted by state dept (I think) workers without protective equipment when they got to the air force base. And then apparently all those state dept workers went back to their hotels, and then flew home. Like, how many lives is that going to cost?

[gwynnega]

Yes, it's just beyond appalling. Although, given that the coronavirus seems to be making its way around the globe, I suppose it would have made it here eventually, even without this spectacular incompetence.

[sovay]

even without this spectacular incompetence.

I wish I thought that accelerating a pandemic was the kiss of political death.

[gwynnega]

Me too.

[cynthia1960]

Yup.